The wake

Film, 29 minutes, 2019

'The Wake' is a surreal allegory that reckons with the complex emotions of being human within the Holocene extinction. A protagonist assumes responsibility for five enormous wisdom teeth unrooted from a glacier melting into the ocean. Traveling over icy tundra and traversing sheer cliffs, they shepherd the teeth toward an unknown destination.

It was made by Jemila MacEwan after her contemplation of Vatnajökull in Iceland, Europe’s largest glacier, which is melting as a result of human-driven climate change. I was assistant director, and we shot, edited and composed the sound together in Iceland in 2018.